When Public Opinion Doesn’t Matter

The flood of media attention on the Schiavo case could leave you thinking America is deeply divided on the right-to-die issue, and on the question of whether government intervention is appropriate. But:

… a 2003 Fox News poll found just 2 percent of Americans think the government should decide this type of right-to-die issue … And in the past week, an overwhelming majority — 87 percent — of Americans polled by ABC News and the Washington Post said that if they were in the same state as Terri Schiavo, they too would want their feeding tube removed.

For a change, America is united, not divided. But you’d never guess that from watching the evening news.

Music: Illy B :: Violes

One Reply to “When Public Opinion Doesn’t Matter”

  1. Heard on NPR this morning that the overwhelming majority of Americans do *not* think that the feeding tube should be reinserted. So even in this specific case there’s a fair amount of unity.

    I’m disgusted by the whole affair, frankly. Doesn’t Congress have enough to do? I mean, interfering in private medical affairs, conducting hearings on steroids in baseball — it’s all a huge waste of their time, chasing after things that the federal government has no business troubling itself with. And I thought the republicans were the party of small, nonintrusive government!

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